Online conspiracy theories and false claims about Brazil’s election results fueled riots in the nation’s capital last weekend as extremists followed the digital playbook used in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
Researchers and advocates warned tech companies for months to take action to mitigate the likelihood of real-world harm in Brazil. Now they say mainstream giants’ efforts to curb the spread of content fueling the riots are too little, too late — a pattern they say is familiar for Silicon Valley.
And with social media companies lacking what they deem adequate safeguards, experts warn the uptick of political vitriol online threatens to give rise to similar events again in the future.
“When we are seeing this kind of content, this kind of attitude, being repeated over and over again. It’s extremely concerning,” said Flora Rebello Arduini, campaign director of the advocacy group Sum of Us.
“History is repeating itself, not in a positive way,” Arduini said.
On Sunday rioters supporting Brazil’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro, attacked Brazil’s Congress, Supreme Court and presidential palace, fueled by false narratives that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stole the country’s October election.
Much like the attack on the U.S. Capitol two years ago, the Brazilian riots came after extremists boosted those narratives online, planting the seeds for calls for violence.
For the past year, Bolsonaro’s networks were active online reinforcing discourse against the...
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